Dungeon Predator (WN)

"Please give me the return scroll."

Kang Oh extended his hand.

Returning to Altein was an exceedingly simple matter as Grano had brought a return scroll with him.

All he needed to do was rip it up and they'd be transported back to Altein.

"Shouldn't we tell Mr. Radium that we're leaving?" Eder asked.

"It's disrespectful to leave without saying goodbye," Grano agreed.

"Then let's call Radium," Kang Oh said.

Eder moved. He opened the door and peeked his head outside.

He saw a female Fishman cleaning.

"Excuse me!" Eder called her.

"Yes, how can I help you?"

"Please call Radium for us," Eder said.

"Please wait just a moment."

Sometime after she'd left, Radium opened the door and came inside.

"What is the matter?"

"We were going to leave," Kang Oh said.

"Already? Why not stay a little longer?"

Radium's disappointment was plainly visible.

"We'd like to, but we have something we must attend to," Kang Oh smiled and said.

You see, the treasures of the Bariton Desert are waiting for me!

"Then I suppose it can't be helped."

Radium didn't try keeping them here any longer.

"Please tell the queen that I'll fulfill her request," Kang Oh said.

Radium nodded his head.

"Mr. Grano, please give me the scroll."

Grano opened his subspace, retrieved three return scrolls, and passed them out.

The return scrolls were coiled up.

'These cost 100 gold each, huh?'

The return scrolls were magical devices that were only sold at the magic tower and were worth 100 gold!

"What is that?" Radium asked curiously.

"It's called a scroll; it's a piece of paper that contains a spell. If you rip this piece of paper up, then the spell within is activated," Grano amicably explained.

"Hoh. Then what kind of spell is contained within this paper?"

"A spell that sends you home."

Grano smiled.

"Mr. Radium, be well."

Kang Oh said his goodbyes before Radium could ask another question.

"Be well."

"If I have the chance, I'll come by again."

Eder and Grano said their own goodbyes.

"Yes. Take care," Radium sent them off.

Kang Oh, Eder, and Grano simultaneously ripped their return scrolls.

Silver powder fluttered around them.

Their bodies gradually faded away and ultimately disappeared completely.

* * *

Jae Woo was meeting with Jin Cheol in the cafe.

"This is the contract."

Jin Cheol passed him the contract.

It was Jae Woo's contract, stating that he was selling his footage of defeating Caraco and Arumode to GBS.

Jae Woo slowly read through the contract. There were no issues with either the payment or the details.

"Neither my face or my private life will be shown this time too, right?" Jae Woo asked.

"Yes. You'll be called Oga during the broadcast and you're already wearing a helmet within the video, so there's no need to edit one in either," Jin Cheol smiled and said.

Kang Oh wore the Baramut helmet within the video, so half of his face was already concealed.

Therefore, there was no need to edit one in with CGI.

"It's a good thing I didn't make my face transparent through the helmet," Jae Woo said.

In Arth, a player could make their helmet transparent, allowing others to see their face.

However, Jae Woo hadn't adjusted the settings, so his helmet concealed his face.

"Do you have no plans of ever revealing yourself on air? Someone like you would be extremely popular," Jin Cheol said.

In his opinion, there was a high chance that Jae Woo would become a star gamer.

There was his past as the Human Dragon, a player with unrivaled skills, as well as his two years in a coma and making a comeback!

"As of now, I'd rather not show my face or my past history."

Because Kang Oh had created a scanned character, his in-game face and his real life face were exactly the same.

Therefore, it could cause trouble for him both in-game and out if he showed his face.

This was especially true for the most renowned players; occasionally, other players would follow them around, begging them for either items or money, and Jae Woo really disliked those types of people.

Plus, some people enjoyed arguing with them or tried to trick them just because they were famous gamers.

"But you have to make an appearance."

Jin Cheol took out a document envelope from his bag and passed it to him.

"Is this the plan for appearances on the new regular show, Dungeon Conquering Man?" Jae Woo asked.

Jin Cheol had told him that Dungeon Conquering Man, that had appeared on GBS during Chuseok, had been approved for 10 episodes.

"That's right. And I also put in your contract for appearing, Mr. Jae Woo. Please take a look at it."

Jae Woo opened the envelope, took out all of the contents and began reading through it.

He first looked through his contract for making an appearance.

"My appearance fee is 4 million won ($4,000 USD)?"

Jae Woo looked shocked.

Including his 500,000 won ($500 USD) incentive for surpassing a certain viewership threshold, he was paid 2.5 million ($2,500 USD) for his appearance on Chuseok.

However, his appearance fee had increased to 4 million won. Moreover, an appearance fee of 4 million won was pretty similar to what was offered to the famous rankers.

"I told you I owed you one for what happened with Ms. Kang Seol Hee," Jin Cheol smiled and said.

"Wow, Mr. Producer. You really back pay your debts."

"It's nothing."

Jin Cheol slightly bowed his head.

Jae Woo put down the contract and looked over the plan for Dungeon Conquering Man.

They hadn't made many changes to Dungeon Conquering Man.

It was still much the same; the Dungeon Conquering Man would pair with a beautiful female celebrity and attempt to conquer a dungeon with a fan-voted mission.

However, there were some changes.

"The broadcast company is deciding the pairs?" Kang Oh asked.

Now, the celebrities weren't choosing their partner; instead, the broadcast company would choose.

"Yes. It's to give the pairs more time to get familiar with each other," Jin Cheol said.

Chemistry between people was important, but there was a chance the pair's chemistry wouldn't be good if they were so suddenly paired up. Therefore, the broadcast company had taken charge of that detail themselves.

"Who am I paired up with?" Jae Woo asked.

"Ms. Soo Ah."

The pair that had the most chemistry during the previous Dungeon Conquering Man broadcast was Jae Woo and Soo Ah.

Jin Cheol was putting his faith in their chemistry this time too.

"I see."

That worked for him. She was not only beautiful and cute, but she knew how to play games and they were close as well.

Jae Woo thoroughly looked over the plan once more.

"There are level 1 to level 5 dungeons prepared..." Jae Woo read one part of the plan.

"Yes. If you clear the level 1 dungeon, then you can move onto the next level dungeon. And the last dungeon you conquered will determine what your reward will be," Jin Cheol said.

"How much do you get for conquering the level 5 dungeon?"

"It's 1 million won ($1,000 USD) for a level 1 dungeon, 2 million won ($2,000 USD) for a level 2 dungeon, and 5 million won ($5,000 USD) for a level 5 dungeon. If you clear every single level, then you receive 15 million won ($15,000 USD)."

"Oh, that's a huge cash prize."

"The program will last 10 episodes, and we're planning on shooting five times."

"So one shoot is two weeks worth of content?"

"Exactly."

"So we're shooting five times and there are 10 episodes at 4 million won ($4,000 USD) a piece... so it comes out to a total of 40 million won ($40,000 USD), right?"

When he organized all the data, he figured out that he was being offered a ton of money relative to how many shooting sessions they had.

"Do you like it?"

Jin Cheol smiled.

"Quite a bit."

"Then please sign."

"Alright."

Jae Woo signed the contract for appearing.

Jin Cheol checked the time.

"I have to return to the broadcast company, so I need to get going. And I'll message you regarding the finished schedule."

Jin Cheol retrieved the contract and stood up.

"Alright, please do so."

Jae Woo stood up as well.

The two shook hands and parted ways.

* * *

The clock struck 9 o'clock.

Jae Woo and his family were gathered in the living room.

"So what's the matter?" his mother asked him.

Jae Woo had asked them to gather, so it was an obvious question.

His little sisters also looked at him with an expression that seemingly said, 'Yeah, what's the matter?'.

"I told you that I paid off all our debt, right?" Jae Woo said.

"You did."

Because he'd paid off all of their debt, he had lifted a huge burden off his mother's shoulders.

"Please take a look at this."

Jae Woo had sold Caracuni's Golden Spear for 2,500 gold in the auction house.

After the 10% commission fee, he had received 2,250 gold for the sale.

Therefore, there was more than 20 million won ($20,000 USD) in his bank account.

"Where did you get this?"

His mother saw how much money he had and looked shocked.

"I picked up an expensive item while I was playing. I got all that from selling the item."

"Hoo, I see."

Kang Oh had made quite a bit of money from selling items and in-game currency during his time in Warlord too.

Although his mother was used to this, seeing 20 million won in his bank account caused her heart to pound.

"I'll also be showing up on TV soon, but I'll be paid a lot more than this," Jae Woo said.

"Are you talking about that program you were on for Chuseok?" Yura asked.

"Yep. It became a regular program with 10 scheduled episodes and I was cast."

"Nice!"

Yura was overjoyed.

"You suck at dating and a lot of other stuff too, but you're great at making money," Mina said.

"Yeah, I am good at making money," he said snobbishly.

Through Arth (the goose that laid golden eggs), he was raking in the money.

"And I'm choosing not to date. It’s not that I'm bad at it," Jae Woo added.

"That's rich coming from someone who's been single all his life."

"Do you have a boyfriend? You don't even have one, yet you..." Jae Woo countered.

"I have one."

"You do?"

"Yep."

"Who's the bast... Err, who's the guy?"

He was in front of his mother, so he quickly changed his verbalization.

"A friend in the same grade."

"Then introduce him to me sometime," Kang Oh said.

If he met Mina's boyfriend, then he'd grab him by the collar and say, 'If you make her cry, then you're dead.'.

"Well, if I get the chance," Mina said.

"Bring him over sometime. I'd like to see him too," his mother said.

"Ok."

Mina nodded his head.

"Then when we move to our new house, we can have a housewarming party and call him over then," Jae Woo said.

"Did you say a new house?"

His mother looked surprised. What did he mean by 'a new house'?

"Yes. I made this much money and I'll make even more in the future, so I'd like for us to move somewhere else."

That was the reason Kang Oh had gathered them. They couldn't always live here underground with the cockroaches.

"I'm in favor."

Mina's hand shot right up.

Yura didn't really say anything, but she looked like she fancied the idea as well.

"What about you, mom?" Jae Woo asked.

His mother looked at Jae Woo, Yura, and Mina respectively and nodded her head.

"Alright, let's move."

"Alright!"

"Yeah!"

Mina and Yura smiled and were overjoyed.

"You have a house in mind?" his mother asked.

"Yes. I had a real estate agent look into it and they found a few houses that would work for us. So let’s all tour the houses next week."

"Alright!" Mina yelled.

"Let's do that."

His mother smiled.

"Mom," Jae Woo called.

"What is it?"

"Why don't you cut your hours? I've paid off our debt and we're going to move soon."

Once he began making money through Arth, his mother had quit one of her jobs. Despite that, she still worked way too much.

"I'll think about it."

"I told you that you should start living your life rather than working all the time."

"Alright, I got it."

His mother beamed.

"Big Brother, it's a great day, so why don't we order chicken or something?"

The gluttonous Yura expressed her yearning through her eyes.

"Is one even enough? Buy three."

After all, it was chicken, so he had to buy at least three.

"You got it!"

Yura grabbed the phone immediately.

Sometime later...

The delicious scent of chicken wafted through the living room and the food fighter, Yura, quickly devoured the chicken.